Lawyers of last resort

The Annapolis Capital profiled two Maryland Legal Aid clients as part of its “Getting By” series about the recession. David Gaines of Annapolis and Margaret Sullivan of Glen Burnie lost their jobs, and when they ran into legal difficulties getting unemployment benefits, they had turned to Legal Aid for help.

“Gaines, a middle-aged Annapolis man, lost his $60,000 job in 2009 and needed help getting his unemployment benefits reinstated,” the article said. “Sullivan, an 82-year-old woman who has worked her entire adult life, was laid off last year from her job at an Annapolis department store. When she had problems obtaining unemployment benefits, she, too, had nowhere else to turn.

“In the past, these were not the typical clients at the state’s largest nonprofit organization providing free legal services to the poor,” the article continued. “But as the economy has slowed, these former middle-income wage earners are flocking to Maryland Legal Aid to take seats next to the traditional low-income clients.”

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Our Services

Services provided to low-income people include employment (getting illegally denied unemployment benefits and back pay and wages due), housing (preserving affordable housing, stopping illegal evictions from public and subsidized housing, advocating for the correction of substandard housing, preventing homelessness), income maintenance (helping those with disabilities avoid institutionalization, preserving or obtaining public benefits, overcoming denial of public benefits), juvenile (representing abused and neglected children), consumer (preventing foreclosure, helping homeowners bilked by foreclosure rescue scams, correcting credit ratings, stopping dept-collection activity, overcoming illegal or unfair sales contracts, avoiding utility terminations), health (helping sick children and the elderly get medical assistance, helping seniors get Medicaid assistance so they can live in their communities), family (making sure custodial parents don't lose custody of their children, helping abused women obtain custody, divorce and alimony), farmworkers (educating and representing farmworkers regarding their employment rights and educating service providers, government and the public about farmworkers' rights and needs), and education (helping children get special education services to which they are entitled, avoiding illegal or unfair school suspensions and obtaining correct school records).

Pitch a Poverty Story to Your Editor.

Legal Aid is fielding a record number of calls from reporters. Suddenly, poverty is hot. Could it be it’s because so many middle-class people are slipping into poverty? Here’s why you should pitch your editor a poverty story: You’ll learn a lot about public benefits (such as food stamps, unemployment benefits and foreclosure prevention), meet some of our formidable experts…and gain expertise that could come in handy.
Cynical? You bet. I used to be a reporter.

Some Stats…

In 2011, Maryland Legal Aid helped 70,000 of our neediest citizens with their civil legal needs at no charge to them. Due to funding limitations, we are able to help only 20 percent of those who are financially eligible for our services.